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[2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 3:53 pm
by hanchogrande
I'm afraid I simply don't understand this comic. Clearly self is being used to some other meaning, but I don't understand why. What could be the context of it, does anyone know?

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 4:00 pm
by Herpler
yeah no I don't get it either

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 4:20 pm
by johnny2shoes
I think "myself' refers to her own physical body, rather than "myself" meaning her virginity

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 6:17 pm
by jets3field
The girl took a too literal interpretation of the word myself. When the priest told her to save herself until marriage he meant not to have sex until she was married. She interpreted it as preserving her "self" which in her case was remaining alive. The priest then whispers to her, no I meant don't have sex until your are married, to which she replies "ARE YOU INSANE?!"

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 6:12 am
by Gradivus
Not one of the best ones. Too abstruse, and a bit forced.

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 6:41 am
by Me or Ma Self?
Glad i am not alone.

Now that i get it its funny.

PS: I don't get the "What is the nerdiest possible thing you could name your child?" either.

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 3:14 pm
by Edminster
Me or Ma Self? wrote:PS: I don't get the "What is the nerdiest possible thing you could name your child?" either.
It's what Zach named his child, after Ada Lovelace and Marie Curie.

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 6:34 pm
by Liriodendron_fagotti
Man that really bugged me. Talking about forced. Like parents naming their son "Albert Isaac _____". Recognizing female scientists is great, but Lovelace and Curie are like the only two that an average person might recognize. Zach even did a comic about over-representation of Marie Curie when discussing female scientists. It's also crazy pretentious and laying a lot on the kid.

In full disclosure, for my name if I'd been a girl, my parents chose "Emma" by flipping to the contributing authors in the then-latest edition of Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas and Virginia.

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 9:58 pm
by Thisfox
Thankyou for that. I've been wondering for a year as to what this secret "nerdiest" code was, unable to work it out. I even gave in one day, and emailed the creator of the comic, and he didn't tell me a thing. All this time, I was told to "talk to a moderator" and yet couldn't get the email or contact details of a moderator until I registered..... :roll:

Now I can join in on these discussions! Excellent!

Honestly, how was I meant to know that the creator of the comic even HAD a child, let alone what her name was? Isn't that a bit of a violation of his privacy? Was I meant to webstalk the poor man? ...Also, I don't see how Ada or Marie are nerdy names, but hey, that's a matter of opinion.

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 11:20 pm
by Lethal Interjection
Liriodendron_fagotti wrote:In full disclosure, for my name if I'd been a girl, my parents chose "Emma" by flipping to the contributing authors in the then-latest edition of Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas and Virginia.
I honestly can't tell if that's sarcasm.

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 11:41 pm
by Liriodendron_fagotti
It is honestly not.

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:00 am
by Lethal Interjection
Liriodendron_fagotti wrote:It is honestly not.
That is a glorious story. Because it is humorously boring and also wonderfully progressive and kind-of subversive. I love it.

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:05 am
by Edminster
Thisfox wrote:Honestly, how was I meant to know that the creator of the comic even HAD a child, let alone what her name was? Isn't that a bit of a violation of his privacy? Was I meant to webstalk the poor man? ...Also, I don't see how Ada or Marie are nerdy names, but hey, that's a matter of opinion.
By checking his wikipedia page, which lists it in the big infobox thing. You can also find the answer in the FAQ which is the first topic in this subforum, because it is a question people frequently ask. It is intended as a barrier that requires rudimentary lateral thinking skills to overcome, which I find to be significantly more effective at weeding out spambots than more traditional countermeasures. By way of a for instance, when we were using CAPTCHAs the human:spam ratio was about 2:1, and it was a nuisance going through every registration only to delete a third of them.

I figured I had the question difficulty calibrated correctly because alongside actual people we still get a spambot registration from time to time, but apparently there is a minority of people who genuinely wish to discuss the comic but are not as cognitively resourceful as literal unthinking pieces of code. I will go ahead and make sure my email address is listed in the FAQ from now on, though.

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 6:01 am
by Thisfox
Edminster wrote:
Thisfox wrote:Honestly, how was I meant to know that the creator of the comic even HAD a child, let alone what her name was? Isn't that a bit of a violation of his privacy? Was I meant to webstalk the poor man? ...Also, I don't see how Ada or Marie are nerdy names, but hey, that's a matter of opinion.
By checking his wikipedia page, which lists it in the big infobox thing. You can also find the answer in the FAQ which is the first topic in this subforum, because it is a question people frequently ask........
Ah. Whoops. I tried the wikipedia article for SMBC and tried various combinations of names on that wikipedia site last year sometime, I remember idly thinking it was the most likely solution. I think I'd seen a cryptic article somewhere where it said the answer was on Wikipedia. But not that I needed to check on the authors Wikipedia entry, unfortunately. I did email the Author that I had evidently lost the intelligence test. He, fairly enough, had no idea how I might go about it, and pointed out it wasn't his job, which was right enough... Sigh.

I'm a teacher. I know many many girls called Ada and Marie. They're normal. The nerdiest name I've encountered so far? Hazchem. He's a lovely lad, but his parents have a lot to answer for. I also have taught kids called Yacht, Rainbow, and River. In different schools, with different parents. Ada and Marie? Tame.

I simply decided you were a closed colony who didn't want other people to try to join. I decided it was pointless to keep on trying, but this particular comic was so incomprehensible to me that I had to check the comments to work out if my deciphering was right or wrong. It was wrong, by the way: I thought the (priest?) man with the glasses had said that men like necrophillia or something.

Perhaps I do think too oddly.

Re: [2015-6-9] - The meaning of self?

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 1:41 pm
by a1s
Edminster wrote:
Thisfox wrote:Honestly, how was I meant to know that the creator of the comic even HAD a child, let alone what her name was? Isn't that a bit of a violation of his privacy? Was I meant to webstalk the poor man? ...Also, I don't see how Ada or Marie are nerdy names, but hey, that's a matter of opinion.
By checking his wikipedia page, which lists it in the big infobox thing. You can also find the answer in the FAQ which is the first topic in this subforum, because it is a question people frequently ask. It is intended as a barrier that requires rudimentary lateral thinking skills to overcome, which I find to be significantly more effective at weeding out spambots than more traditional countermeasures. By way of a for instance, when we were using CAPTCHAs the human:spam ratio was about 2:1, and it was a nuisance going through every registration only to delete a third of them.

I figured I had the question difficulty calibrated correctly because alongside actual people we still get a spambot registration from time to time, but apparently there is a minority of people who genuinely wish to discuss the comic but are not as cognitively resourceful as literal unthinking pieces of code. I will go ahead and make sure my email address is listed in the FAQ from now on, though.
Also, you know, it's easy to look up.